Just For a Moment (title may change)
by Katerika
Summary: Still mourning Rin, Sesshomaru has taken to roaming Japan's forests alone as a vicious white dog. He keeps his territory strictly to himself, not allowing any other demons or canines within it. But when an exhausted wolf spirit from lands beyond Japan comes to take refuge in his home and something in him allows her to stay, he finds his life crumbling. (Full Summary inside! R&R!)


**Ma'iingan is based off part of my indian name (feather not dot.) And I will try to make her as non-marysue-ish as possible. Romance will not be heavy. This is set three hundred years after Rin's death. Also, this is my first fanfic so please go easy of criticism and please no flames! *don't eat me!***

**I am going to try and follow old legends from both native american culture and asian culture:) It won't be perfect, I can tell you that now, but I'll try. I am a fourth Korean, just under a fourth Ojibwe, and the rest of me is a huge mishmash of different things (mostly Norse and Celtic.) so I,m hoping that maybe I'll be able to learn more about both those parts of me while writing this :D (Also, yes I know that Inuyasha takes place in Japan. But Rumiko uses other asian legends and religious stories in her works. Including things from China and Korea.)**

** Reviews are appreciated! I don't own Sesshomaru, Rin, or any other characters and stuff from Inuyasha.**

Snow. Whirling snow. Like feathers and soft fur, only cool to the touch. It was so familiar to her, yet each time it came falling from the heavens she couldn't help but notice anew. Fur kept her warm, even out here, going over the sea. But a storm was soon to come, and the ocean and air alike would be violent. An island, yes that was where she needed to rest, but where was an island?

For miles around all she could see was a grey, frozen sea and snow. For the first time in many years Ma'iingan shivered.

She looked back toward where she knew her home lay, still broken, and wished she could go back. Oh but she was unwanted, and there wasn't much to go back to… Still, she missed the forests and the Gichigami, she missed her life. Nothing compared to the home she left behind, nothing ever would… But now she could never go back.

Hours later, as the sky darkened to black and the storm began to roar and roll to life, a heavy gust of wind shattered her control and down she fell like a stone dropped from a tree. She crashed through the ice and into the ever pulsing waves of the northern sea.

* * *

Winter. White winter. White like him, only cool to the touch. And now a storm raged over the sea, soon to clash with his forest home, soon to clash against the mountains. He needed to hunt, find prey soon or risk a very possible death. He may be a demon, a spirit in the flesh, but he still needed something to sustain his body. If the storm snowed him in and he was stuck within his den, death was all too possible.

Even He, Lord Sesshomaru, would not ignore that risk. Off he went to hunt, but first he needed to stop somewhere else along the way. Rin's grave.

Nearly three hundred years had come and died, like her, since her passing. Three hundred years of un-numbable pain and maddening sorrow that drove him to this feral life.

He stopped and shifted back to his humanoid form to sit by her for a while. Just for a moment, he told himself. Though he wished to stay with her forever. Snow began to fall, green and grey were shrouded by white. It blanketed him and he found himself drawn to its beauty. _Rin loved snow…_

When he woke he felt like a fool. He'd let himself fall asleep, and in a fur-less form too. The storm was raging already. He'd heard and noticed none of it because he'd been buried in his own little pocket of snow by Rin's grave. Now he'd missed his opportunity to hunt and he was freezing. With a quick farewell to her he turned back in the direction of his den.

* * *

She struggled and gasped clinging to the ice flow by her short claws. It was a hard task, too straining, and she knew if she didn't get a better grip and climb out of this water she'd freeze and slip under. But she hardly had the energy to shift twice.

More wind and snow, more stinging icy sleet and chilling water spraying against her fur. She was coated with ice by now, she was sure. Another towering wave rose up, several meters high and her ice chunk was tumbled in its crest. But now she was on top of the wave, having been seesawed near into the sky, or so it felt. Perhaps if she jumped from here she could gain some aid from the storm and cloud run again. It seemed a far better option than drifting and tumbling and surely drowning. She took her chances and lept just before the ice chunk sunk down the back of the wave.

Cloud running while half frozen to death and bruised and battered by a gale was excruciating. Her body ached and screamed in protest against every stroking step. She felt more fear and hopelessness pile onto what was already there, like layers of ice. She would never make it. She was simply too young and too weak to do so. And in this condition, the odds were even less in her favor.

_Please_, She prayed. _Creator help me. This Ma'iingan needs you._ Then the wind began to push her along and suddenly there were lights just barely in view. The mainland? No… It was too far still… So, an island then… And with villages, it appeared. _Oh thank you Creator!_ The wind carried her the rest of the way to the shore before setting her in a deep snowbank. But the waves were still too near, crashing up against frozen sand rock. She crawled up a human path and ventured off a ways to a thick tree. She snuggled up against its trunk and bathed in the tiny bit of warmth it offered her. Trees were always warmer.

* * *

It didn't matter that the wind was howling and that he was nearly asleep again. Sesshomaru felt the other spirit approach. He growled a warning and stepped out into the blizzard. But he saw no one. Frustrated her climbed further out of his den and snapped at the snow in irritation. Then, however, the snow beneath him shifted. He jumped back in surprise. It hadn't been snow after all, but the other demon.

Immediately he had the female by the neck. "Okami." He growled. "Leave now or become my meal to last me through this storm." His threat went unanswered, though. And he then noticed the wolf was limp in his jaws.

Was she dead? He sniffed her. No, life still beat within her… But her scent was odd, alien and unfamiliar. She was not from anywhere near here, she smelled of a different realm entirely. He wondered if she was of any threat to him.

He almost laughed. How could this broken excuse for an Okami be of any concern to him. He dropped her back in the snow. He'd just drive her out when the storm was over… If she even still lived.

He crawled back into the warmth of his den and let his body slide back to his humanoid form. He burrowed down into his fur boa and tried to go back to sleep. But sleep would not indulge him and his thoughts kept going back to the dying Okami outside. Why? It angered him that she occupied his thoughts. What did he care of a foreign wolf, hmm? Yet something deep within him told him to go to her, to show her mercy. What was this about, he wondered. Was it something instinctual, the desire to form a pack perhaps? He didn't understand it, and though he never would admit it, it slightly scared him. But he wanted rest and if bringing her into his den, as much as he loathed the action, settled him then he would.

Just until the end of the storm.

He willed her body to shift back to its own human-like form and he found that she was not that much unlike him. Pale skinned and lean, but with dark, dusty brown hair that fell to her thighs. She curled into his fur, almost taking up the whole thing. He shoved her over a bit and laid down as far from her on the fur as he could get.

At least, though, sleep finally did come.

When he woke the storm was over, the only sign it had even been there being a thick layer of new snow. And the Okami... She was gone.


End file.
